Late in the autumn of 1827 I went to labor as an evangelist,
with the Rev. James Patterson, of Philadelphia. The Spirit of the
Lord was poured out, and an extensive revival of religion
commenced almost immediately. It soon spread to almost or quite
every part of the city, and I preached more or less in several of
the Presbyterian and Dutch churches in the city. A great many very
interesting cases of conversion occurred, and incidents of most
thrilling interest were of almost daily occurrence. To relate them
all would require a large volume. Among them was the following: A
lady of intelligence and refinement called on one occasion to
consult me about her duty. Up to the time of that revival she had
remained unconverted and had paid but little attention to the
question of her own salvation. At the time she called on me she
had passed through a great struggle of mind, under conviction of
sin, and was beginning to hope in Christ. Her husband, she
informed me, was a tobacconist, a skeptic, and unfriendly to
religion. He did not attend meeting himself and was very much
opposed to her attending. She said that she felt that the
salvation of her soul depended upon her attending the meetings and
getting the instruction which she from day to day was receiving.
Notwithstanding the opposition of her husband, she had not dared
to absent herself from meeting, lest she should grieve the Spirit
of God and lose her soul. Her husband, she said, was a German, a
man of violent temper and of strong will; but I understood her to
say that she had never had any serious trouble with him before. He
would often fly into a passion, but was soon over it. As he had
perceived that she had become more earnest in seeking the
salvation of her soul, he had utterly forbidden her coming to hear
the preaching any more. The point of her inquiry was what I should
advise her to do under the circumstances. I asked her if there was
anything in the circumstances of the family that rendered it
important that she should be at home at the time of the preaching
service. She said there was not. "Does your attending those
meetings interfere with any duty that you owe to your husband or
your family?" She replied: "No, unless it is my duty to neglect
the salvation of my soul in order to comply with the wishes of my
husband." I inquired: "Can you appeal to him as a witness to your
faithfulness and attention to your duties as a wife and a mother?"
She said she had asked him if she had not always been a faithful
wife and a mother, and whether she had ever crossed him in any of
his reasonable requirements. He confessed that she had not. I
asked her how she viewed the question of her duty in the case. She
replied that she had been strongly impressed with the conviction
that it was her duty to go straight forward and make her peace
with God for the Lord's sake, for her own sake, and as the best
thing she could do for her husband and children. Her husband
needed an intelligently Christian praying wife and her children
needed a praying mother. She further said: "I tell my husband that
I must hear the preaching; and, if he will not consent, I feel it
my duty to go notwithstanding." She appeared to me to be led in
this thing by the Spirit of God, and the advice I gave her was to
look constantly to God for direction and follow her convictions of
duty. Shortly after this, as I subsequently learned, her husband
threatened her with violence if she went to hear the preaching
again. But she waxed confident in the Lord and persisted in coming
to meeting. At last he became so outrageous as to threaten her
life if she came again to meeting. She laid the matter constantly
before the Lord, and decided, as she thought, in the light of God,
to attend, whatever the consequences might be. She did not
believe, however, that he would attempt to execute his threat.
When evening came she went to meeting. On her return, she had no
sooner shut the front door after her than her husband appeared, in
the greatest rage, with a dagger in his hand, and swore he would
kill her on the spot. As he approached her, she evaded him and ran
upstairs in the dark. He caught a light (for it was before their
houses were lighted with gas) and followed her. The servant girl
fearing the consequences, blew out the light as he was entering
the stairway. The lady rushed through the rooms and down a back
stairway into the cellar, and escaped into the street through a
cellar window. She spent the night at the house of a friend. She
returned in the morning, expecting to find him cool and ashamed of
what he had done the night before. But as soon as she had fairly
entered the hall he stepped behind her, locked the door, then
threw himself upon his knees, and, with uplifted hands, took the
most horrid oath that he would take her life that very hour. He
instantly arose and drew his dirk, and pitched at her in a state
of terrible wrath. She dodged him, and again ran upstairs, and he
after her. She fled from room to room, until she found herself in
a room from which there was no escape, and he was close upon her.
Seeing herself cornered, and that no further retreat was possible,
she turned and faced him as he entered the door, and, falling upon
her knees, spread abroad her hands, and cried to God for help. Her
attitude, looks, uplifted face and hands, and cry to Heaven
arrested him like a thunderbolt. He stopped, looked, fell on his
knees, and cried for mercy. After a short struggle of
inexpressible distress, confession, and humiliation, he broke
thoroughly down upon the spot, made his peace with God and with
his wife, and was a new man. Thus wondrously did God manifest his
faithfulness to the wife and his long-suffering mercy to the
husband. On inquiry, she found that he had been in a tempest of
rage the whole night and nearly insane with wrath. He had dashed
in pieces several articles of furniture, and had kept those
members of the family who were at home in a state of great alarm.
But he had become as humble and docile as a child. I had these
facts from the parties themselves. I assisted at the communion at
which they were both received into the church, and myself baptized
their children. That he was a true convert I had the most
satisfactory evidence for the time that I knew him. Some two or
three years after his conversion I met him, in passing through
Philadelphia. It was known to some of my friends that I was to
arrive on a certain steamboat, and this German was one of the
first who greeted me with a warm heart as I stepped upon the dock.
I have not seen him since, and of late years I have forgotten his
name. Being a German name and new to me, it has entirely escaped
my mind. I relate these facts as an illustration of a trial and
triumph of faith. The Christian calmness and firmness of that lady
before the trial culminated and her triumphant joy after it was
over I shall never forget. It was morally sublime. If either of
these parties is living, and this article should come to his or
her notice, I beg that he or she will write me, that I may hear
before I go hence of the Lord's dealings with them. I have related
the facts as nearly as I can recollect them.

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